How do I work out the carbon footprint of a 3D printed part?
Add two things: the printer's electricity for that part and the material used. Electricity is the printer's average power times print hours, times 0.710 kg CO2 per kWh. Material is the filament or powder weight, including supports and failed prints, times a named factor for that polymer or metal.
Electricity
Read the kWh from a plug meter over a few prints rather than the label rating. Powder bed and metal printers also use energy for heating and inert gas.
Material
- Weigh the part and supports, or take grams from the slicer.
- Add the share of failed or scrapped prints.
- Use a factor for the exact material, such as PLA, ABS, nylon powder or steel powder.
Example (illustrative)
- Printer draws 0.2 kW for 5 hours: 1.0 kWh × 0.710 = 0.71 kg CO2
- Material: add grams used × your polymer factor
Illustrative quantities; use your own meter reading and material factor.
What Senseible does here
Senseible reads the energy invoices behind the making stage into a fingerprinted Scope 1 and 2 record, and keeps material invoices on the Scope 3 trail. Material factors come from your supplier or a named database and are labelled with their source, so the product figure can be traced line by line.
Sources: GHG Protocol Corporate Value Chain (Scope 3) Standard, CEA CO2 Baseline Database
Last reviewed 2026-10-22.